About St. Philip   >   Worship Center Tour

A Worship Center that enables the three languages of space, ritual, and word to speak in harmony to us

 

The design of our Worship Center has one central focus; from the Environment and Art in Catholic Worship document, we read, "Among the symbols with which liturgy deals, none is more important than this assembly of believers."  The assembly, the people of God.  And further, we read this is the "domus ecclesiae, that is, the house of the Church."

With that much of an introduction, let's begin our tour.

COURTYARD AND ENTRYWAY

You reach our central courtyard from any one of our parking lot areas.  We wanted to relate the new Worship Center to our existing buildings, and so, the creating of the central courtyard uniting all buildings and serving as a gracious entry to our new Worship Center.  The sidewalks and greeneries lead from our parking areas to the central courtyard, certainly the focus of which is Our Blessed Mother, the Mary Garden.  A contained, lovely, outside gathering space for the entire complex.  The statue of Mary was commissioned, designed and forged for us by Jean Juhlin of Valparaiso, Indiana.  A simple inscription reads, "Mary our Mother."

At the main doors of our Worship Center, there's a porch-like overhang.  It's the threshold to the narthex.  The overhang also serves as a protected exterior entrance to the Chapel, where liturgies for small numbers, eucharistic adoration, and Children's Liturgy of the Word are celebrated.  Within this entrance porch, stately doors are provocative, unrevealing of the space inside.

Leading to the entrance doors and spotlit at night, an angled wall bears an insert inscription stone.  Given the depth of the porch and the size of the entryway, a bold, dynamic, asymmetrically set inscription gives great impact to the quotation from Saint John, handwritten by Sister Barbara Chenicek, one of our liturgical design consultants from INAI Studio.

The inscription plaque seen from a distance as writing, is somewhat abstract.  But only on close observation does it reveal its words.  "People approached Philip and put this request to him--Sir, we would like to see Jesus.  Philip replied, Come and See."  The source reference is simply the Gospel of John.

THE NARTHEX

We step inside the Worship Center into an area whose lowered ceilings continue the heights of the exterior porch.  At first, the floor is a thick walk-off matting.  To the right, there is a floor-to-ceiling announcement board.  To the left is a window into the office of the weekend receptionist which is beside the entry point to the annex.  There is a hallway, providing access to the liturgy/receptionist office, the ministry sign-in room, and the vesting sacristy.  But quickly, we are drawn ahead into the narthex.  Before us at an angle, the ceiling steps upward from ten feet to eighteen feet.  At this threshold of the narthex, we step into a great space of green-gray limestone flooring, whose 24x24-inch slabs set diagonally extend to a skylit garden backdrop of this gathering space.  There are areas of seating that offer a place to sit and talk.  Our processional crucifix is placed along a narthex wall.  Our processional crucifix waits for us, the community, to bring it forward into our Worship Center.

This entire gathering space draws itself in light around a single monumental column, a peeled-bark Texas tree centered on the skylit font within.  A slice of glass allows us to glimpse the baptismal waters, and in deeper space, the altar, the holy table, with its backdrop of seasonal liturgical color.

Approaching the narthex garden, the flooring is earth, the total area naturalized with plantings, grass and a boulder set against the roughness and sweep of a natural Texas stone wall.  The stone of the narthex garden wall matches the other side of the wall, the exterior wall that is seen from the roadway.  The Texas stone of this wall, with slushed grouting, is akin to the old slushed stonework in Texas mission churches of San Antonio.  Set high on the wall, a horizontal line of wooden pegs in the stone allows the occasional positioning of single focal elements.  Two wall positions are especially designated for this usage and lit with focused lighting.  A third position focuses lighting on a great leveled Texas boulder set forward in the garden near the edge of the narthex flooring.  Here, a spray of flowers can be placed on the day of a wedding, or a tall container of palms on Palm Sunday, or a bowl of ashes on Ash Wednesday.  The narthex garden offers its plantings and greenery as a space of peace, but it is also designed for singular and meaningful symbols.  The narthex garden offers the opportunity for us to develop strong and simple rituals that may unfold as time progresses.

THE WORSHIP CENTER

We pass through glass doors into the Worship Center leaving the gray-green limestone flooring in the narthex and stepping onto the flooring of the ambulatory.  The 13x13-inch tile is quiet, dark, greenish brown, with the seasoned polished look of old stone.  Light from perimeter skylights and spotlit focal areas give the floor a soft sheen.  The flooring beneath the altar matches the ambulatory as does the central circle of the space.  In the assembly area, ramped aisles and seated decking are covered with carpeting, densely woven and flecked with gray-green golds, beiges and browns of the landscape outside.

Proceed down one of the aisles to the center tiled area.  Now, look up.  The sweeping roof.  Great arched beams.  Walls of grillwork.  They are Douglas fir, slightly grayed, warm in tone.  Light penetrations from four upper skylights and a long horizontal run of clerestory windows on each side of the space repeats the motif of grillwork in the surrounding walls.  Above the central space, the four major arches meet and cross in a twenty foot central interior section, 35 feet above the floor.  Above this intersection, vertical grillwork rises until it meets the roof forming a light-filtering screen to the floor below.

BAPTISMAL FONT

If you take a moment and look at the baptismal font steps and floor surface, they are clad in a roughened gray-green porcelain tile.  The roughened surface prevents slipping when the tiles are wet from the baptismal waters.  The font surface carries the old stone feel and look of the ambulatory and narthex flooring, but is lighter in color with Christian symbols inset with round glass tiles.  The side walls are tiled in the same round glass tiles as the insets on the surfaces.

To give height to the paschal candle, a stone pedestal in front of the garden area, a simple cross is cut into its outward face.  This cross is the fourth signage cross of our space.

WOOD, METAL, GLASS & COLOR

Throughout the Worship Center, the presence of wood expresses the evolution from dark, rough timbers which frame the perimeter skylights, through the warm surrounding wood of Douglas fir, the slightly lighter wood of the assembly seating, to the culmination of the shining light oak of the altar and ambo.  Against these and against the lightly sand-textured walls, the dark polished metal of candlesticks and the shine of white candles step out in contrast to our eyes.

The window glass carries the feel of polarized light allowing full view of the outside and allowing the outside to enter, if you will, but the polarized glass prevents glare to the Worship Center within.

Get a sense of the overall color of our space.  The color in the Worship Center is quiet.  Cool with an underlying warmth.  In feeling, serene.  Color brilliance occurs within the Worship Center in two ways:  In the liturgical color of the season as seen in the tapestries, and in the color created by the community as it assembles to worship.

LITURGICAL TAPESTRIES

Within the quiet surrounding color, liturgical color comes to life.  Persons step into dimensional presence--the liturgical tapestries.  Within each liturgical season, each liturgical tapestry gives a sacred context to time, the sense of change and flow of the year, the unfolding of newness, renewal, and celebration.  Within the year, eight changes occur for each major liturgical cyclical seasons of the calendar year.  Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Summer and Fall.  Each tapestry is based on a scriptural text that underlies the entire season.  Three parts comprise the tapestry units of each season.  Greatest emphasis in the Worship Center is given to the large 10x10-foot tapestry unit.  Two auxiliary tapestries each 4x10-feet are positioned across the space from each other on angled ambulatory walls.  Seen across the space, the interplay of color and texture evoke the feeling of the season.  Approached carefully, the tapestries reveal the careful hand-stitching of the many hands of men and women of our parish community (over 300 people worked on these tapestries).  The careful hand-stitching brings the feel of human presence--the gift of beauty, the care and consolation in times of suffering.  Also matched to the tapestry, liturgical color is brought to the central sanctuary in a beautiful fabric altar band adding solemnity, denoting the fact that this is Sunday, the day when the whole community gathers.  The cushions on the three presider chairs' back and seats are similarly changed with liturgical time and bring liturgical color to the central sanctuary space.

THE RESERVATION CHAPEL

The ambulatory flooring flows from the central Worship Center into a hallway leading into the reservation chapel.  Within the walls of this hallway, concealed cabinetry provides storage for votive candles used in the reservation chapel.  Two large mechanical rooms, unseen from the Worship Center, are positioned to either side of this hallway.

Enter this small hallway.  We enter the daylight of a glassed walled walkway.  To the west, a door opens to a pathway outside, which passes through a landscaped chapel garden to the parking areas beyond.  A powerful presence of a recessed wall of flickering votive candles leads us to the reservation chapel.  We step into quiet space.  Carpeting is lighter here, gray-green with a hint of lavender.  Lush plantings join earth and greenery inside to bermed and naturalized landscaping outside.

THE TABERNACLE

The focus of the reservation chapel is toward the tabernacle.  Beside it, a vigil candle burns.  In the tabernacle we have some Eucharistic food, the Body and Blood of Christ under the form of bread.  The vigil candle that burns next to it reminds us of the real Presence of Christ in the tabernacle.  In the devotion and piety of Catholic tradition, members of the community come into this room for private prayer.  Also, we save the Eucharistic food to bring to our brothers and sisters who are sick or homebound and unable to attend Sunday Mass.  The Live Oak tabernacle door is cut from the same tree as the altar, the same presence.  Beneath the tabernacle, tumbled travertine marbled flooring bears the look of ancient courtyard stones.

The candle wall, easily seen from our Worship Center, is where 28 glass cylinders are in staggered configuration affixed to the stone wall by simple strap base plates.  Votive candles are contained in sleeves that fit into the glass holders.  Beside the candle wall, a built-in unit holds butane lighters, another unit is for offerings for the votive candles.  Notice the reservation chapel vigil candle near the tabernacle.  This singular witness to the reserved Presence carries a sense of flame, a relationship of members, to the candles in the main space.  Bolts beneath the reservation chapel vigil candle relate to the altar and the ambo.

ICONS & CROSSES

An icon of Christ and a festal icon of a particular liturgical feast embrace our space.  The icon of Christ serves to remind us of God's loving gaze upon us.  The icon of Mary or festal icon reminds us of our rich liturgical and biblical tradition.

Four crosses, three embedded in the walls and one engraved on our paschal candle stand, signify that this is a house of the universal Church.

SUPPORT AREAS

As we leave the reservation chapel, on the wall directly opposite the chapel, there are doors concealed by walled grillwork that open to the work sacristy, housekeeping, liturgical tapestry storage, music supply storage, and lighting control panels.  These rooms in the support area unify in feel with the Worship Center.

FURNISHINGS

The Altar

The Lord's Table.  Distinctive in species, Texas Live Oak.  It is detailed with iron support straps beneath the heft of the altar top.  These terminate in bolt heads on sides of the altar legs establishing iron as the basic vocabulary of metal in our Worship Center.

The Ambo

Our ambo, where the Word of God is proclaimed, matches the rift sawn white oak of the other appointments, but repeats the iron strap bolts of the altar.  A Gospel book holder is in front of the ambo.  Close by, an iron pedestal for incense stands ready for liturgical ritual.

Processional Candles

The base plates are square with iron shafts rising from them.  A simple forged curve of iron rises from the candle base and affixes itself to a different side of the iron shaft from which it rose.  We have eight processional candles, seven are designed as a set.  The processional part of the candles which are identical in length are brushed stainless steel.  When carried or positioned into their bases, a sheen of silver catches the light.

Festal Candle

The eighth candle is specific and unique; we call it the celebration or festal candle.  It's meant to be positioned to the side or to the front of the altar on high festive occasions.  The base shaft of this candle stands at five feet six inches high.  A curve of iron rises from its base plate dimensionally ascending like a flame around the shaft to eight feet four inches in height.  The processional part of the celebration candle is 36 inches long.  It is brushed stainless steel.  It locks onto the base shaft.  The person inserting it becomes momentarily a part of the candle itself.  Also notice our column candles.  They carry the forged metal theme, bringing the elements of the candle unit upward or out into space.

The Ambry

The ambry is on the north wall where the holy oils rest.  The bases for our holy oil containers are cut iron openwork.  The bases have the feel of tendrils, or growth.  The silver plates on each of the three white oak shelves holding the oils provides identification--Oil of Catechumenate, Sacred Chrism, and Oil of the Sick.

 

Go through the hallway at the southwest corner of the narthex, near the garden, to access the support rooms, restrooms, and chapel.  In the chapel, there are a cross, altar, and candle.  The single standing candle space of iron and its processional candle shaft of crushed stainless steel relate to but are not matched to the Worship Center.  It is matched to an open work cross in iron and steel, positioned in a niche on the chapel focal wall.

 

We hope you have enjoyed this online tour of the Worship Center.